Speaker
Amelia Stutz
(MPIA)
Description
Understanding how the gas environment within molecular clouds
influences the properties of protostars is a key step towards
understanding the physical factors that control star formation. We
report on analysis of the connection between molecular cloud
environment and protostellar properties using the Herschel Orion
Protostar Survey (HOPS), a large multi-observatory survey of
protostars consisting of data from Herschel, Spitzer, APEX, and other
facilities. HOPS has produced well sampled 1 um to 870 um SEDs of over 300 protostars in the Orion molecular clouds - the most extensive
survey of a single cloud complex to date. These data allow for the
best determination of protostar properties in the largest high- and
low-mass star-forming cloud complex within 500 pc of the Sun.
Furthermore, the combination of APEX 870 um continuum observations
with the HOPS/PACS 160 um data over the same area allows for a
determination of the temperatures and column densities in the often
filamentary dense gas surrounding the Orion protostars. Based on
these data, we will link the protostellar properties with their
environmental properties controlling for column density variations.
Utilizing the diverse environments present within the Orion molecular
clouds, we show how the luminosity and spacing of protostars in Orion
depends on the local gas column density. We also report an unusual
concentration of the youngest known protostars (the Herschel
identified PBRS, PACS Bright Red Sources) in the Orion B cloud, and we discuss possible reasons for this concentration.
Author
Amelia Stutz
(MPIA)